This sounded Yummy for Summer...

Salmon with pea purée and pancetta

Serves 4

for the peas:
shelled peas - 400g (frozen will do)
olive oil - at least 100ml

for the fish:
4 slices of salmon fillet, about 150g per person
a little olive oil
thin slices of pancetta or thin, unsmoked bacon - 12
salt and pepper to season

Set the oven at 200C/gas 6. Put a large pan of water on to boil for the peas. Salt it lightly, then when it is boiling, tip in the peas and cook until tender.

Rub the salmon slices lightly with olive oil, then season with pepper and a little salt. Warm a little of the oil in a non-stick frying pan, then place the salmon dlesh-side down in the pan and let it cook for a minute or two until very lightly coloured. Turn over and cook the other side. Remove the fish and set aside for a minute or so to cool.

Wrap three of the pancetta slices around each piece of salmon. Place them in a shallow baking dish, then bake them for 7-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. When the flakes of fish have turned lightly opaque, they are cooked.

Meanwhile, blitz the peas in a food processor until smooth, then mix in enough olive oil (about 75ml-100ml or so) to make a sloppy purée. Check the seasoning.

Divide the pea purée equally between four plates, then top each portion with a piece of salmon.

Mobiles being taken to the Grave...

Read this on the BBC web site this morning - can you believe it? (also found this image for RIP sandwiches recipe!!)

'Hello? Could someone let me out?'
More people than ever are asking to be buried or cremated with their mobile phones when they die, say researchers.
The trend, which began in South Africa, has now spread to a number of countries, including Ireland, Australia, Ghana, and the US.

Martin Raymond, director of international trend-spotting think-tank, The Future Laboratory said that this had started off "in the realm of the urban myth", but was fast becoming fact.

"You hear about it, the idea that people are being buried with their mobile phones, but you can't really believe it," he told the BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme.

He explained that the first cases of people asking to be buried with their phone originated in Cape Town, where some people's belief in witchcraft meant they feared that "they could fall under a spell, be put to sleep and actually be buried.

"In fact, they were asking for the phones to be put into the coffins with them in case they woke up."

'Limelight funerals'

Mr Raymond said that in Australia the trend was more about affluence.

"People wanted to be buried with the totems that they felt represented their lifestyle," he explained.


Ancient Egyptians were buried with goods for the next life
"We came across one guy who asked to be buried with his mobile phone and his Blackberry, and also with his laptop."

He added that in many cases, being buried with your phone is part of what he termed limelight funerals, people wanting to be buried like celebrities.

The phone is put in the coffin along with diamonds, jewellery, expensive suits, and gold watches.

In some places, however, the practice has parallels with a much more distant time, as being buried along with one's possessions can be traced to ancient Egypt.

In the days of Tutankhamen it was done because they believed literally that the objects would be available to them in the afterlife.

However, in modern times some people are finding they like the idea of being buried with the things that defined them while they were alive.

"When we looked at this in Chad and Ghana, there was part of that implicit in the burial service - that you were taking things with you that would be useful," Mr Raymond said.

"In Ireland, where we came across this, it was more to do with people being buried with things they liked. One guy we came across was buried with a pack of cigarettes and some matches.

"Another was buried with his favourite teddy bear, given to him by his girlfriend."

Spare battery

In some cases, they are even taking their mobiles into cremation.


A beloved bear is one of the comforts taken to the grave
"We came across this in places like South Carolina in the US - people were being burned but unknown to the crematorium, they had left the phones in their jackets," Mr Raymond said.

"If you heat a mobile phone battery, it tends to explode, and the first reports were about explosions, and that's how they started noticing this trend."

Some funeral parlours will now arrange for the phone put into the box with the ashes following the cremation.

And one service in South Africa will put a number of batteries in the coffin just in case the dead person wakes up much later and finds their own battery has run out.

Women and popular culture: The pimp chic debate

Women and popular culture: The pimp chic debate
Dame Anita Roddick has attacked young female role models who think it is "cool to be a whore", criticising stars such as Britney Spears, right, and Beyoncé over the sexual imagery in their videos. Maxine Frith reports
Published: 22 February 2006

Pimp used to be a dirty word. To be accused of dressing or acting like one was an incontrovertible term of abuse. Now, however, it is the height of fashion. At least to some.
"Pimp chic" has entered mainstream culture, with the music industry, luxury shops, clothes designers and even airlines adopting symbols of the culture to advertise their products. Sharp-suited men with scowls, skimpily clad women looking up to them in awe, flash cars and lots of bling may be nothing new when it comes to selling glamour and "cool", but observers say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect of marketing these images, especially to children.

Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, hit out yesterday at the trend. She said: "A lot of people seem to think that it's cool to be a pimp or whore. It's not cool. The reality is dark, evil and appalling and unregulated. The reality is sex trafficking, which is about young women being forced into rooms to have sex however many times a day so that the pimp can take all the money."
She added: "There are thousands of ads, mostly focused on women and young girls, that say you are not attractive, you are not sexy, you are not intelligent, unless you look like this. In kids' magazines there is a passivity and a stupidity that is seen as a great way forward. Something has gone very wrong."

Dame Anita criticised stars such as Beyoncé and Britney Spears for simulating sex in their music videos, and highlighted the trend among some hip hop artists to make porn films to be marketed alongside the graphic lyrics of their songs. "What we have now is what I call "pimp and ho chic" with all aspects of the sex industry presented as hip and cool," she said."Pole dancing as exercise, lap-dancing clubs as places to see celebrities, fancy-dress balls and the everyday use of the words "bitch" and "ho" to refer to women are just some of the examples I have come across."

The film director Spike Lee has also hit out at pimp culture, using a lecture at the University of Florida earlier this month to criticise rap stars such as Snoop Dogg for glamorising prostitution at the same time as reinforcing stereotypes about black men.
He said: "We are bombarded by these gangsta images again and again and again and again ... they do make a difference to human behaviour. No one gets upset any more that pimpdom gets elevated on a pedestal."

It is not just the music world that has embraced pimp chic with such fervour. Richard Branson's airline Virgin Atlantic launched an advertising campaign for its new Upper Class airport clubhouse last year that featured the slogan: "Pimp My Lounge." The department store Selfridges ran prominent advertisements last Christmas depicting a man in "pimp chic" clothes, holding a glass of champagne, with two semi-naked women draped over him. Alongside the image, a strapline read: "Get your Christmas booty."

Last week Madonna - no stranger to raunchy videos and suggestive choreography - appeared on the MTV show Pimp My Ride, in which the DJ Tim Westwood turns ordinary cars into bling-laden vehicles. And Hustle and Flow, a film about a pimp who becomes a gangsta rapper, won a £9m distribution deal at the most recent Sundance Film Festival - the biggest movie deal in the event's history.

Fashion has also embraced the trend, with labels such as Phat Pimp Clothing in London and the "pimp" style of singers such as Andre 3000 from the band Outkast being copied in the pages of glossy magazines. In his hit "Pimp Juice", the rap star Nelly included lines about luxury labels such as Prada, Gucci and Dolce e Gabbana.

Stacy Gillis, an expert in feminism at Newcastle University, believes that "pimp and ho chic" stereotypes black men and objectifies women. She commented: "It is about a white, middle class, Anglo-American culture which picks up on little bits and pieces of another society and class but doesn't really engage with it on a political level.

"There is a disenfranchised part of US society that does glamorise the pimp and fetishises their power and that has transferred over here as well. But it is grotesque in that we are talking about women who are extremely disenfranchised and it is about the complete sexualisation of female identity."

Dr Gillis is particularly concerned about the way in which pimp chic is now being marketed to children. The Playboy brand, for example, now has a best-selling line of pink and black pencil cases, stationery and clothes which the company says is aimed at teenagers, but which has proved to be even more popular with primary school-age girls.

High-street stores such as WH Smith have come in for severe criticism for selling the Playboy brand but have refused to stop doing so.

Dr Gillis said: "I have seen girls as young as four wearing boob tubes and T-shirts with slogans like 'So many boys, so little time'. They look up to people like Jordan and want a Playboy pencil case and watch a Beyoncé video. I find it deeply disturbing that we are sexualising girls' bodies at such a young age."

She added: "Pimp culture is part of the backlash against feminism, in which 'post feminism' is seen as being all about choice - that it's OK for me to get my tits out because it's my choice and that makes me a feminist. Well, no, it doesn't."

But is pimp culture really so bad? Jonathan Freeman, a lecturer in youth culture and marketing at the Warwick Business School, believes not. "I don't think the word pimp may have the same connotation for some young people and children as it has for people like Anita Roddick," he said. "They do not imbue it with the same malevolence, and if you look at something like the Virgin Atlantic campaign, it could be viewed as a bit of fun that fits in with its image and its name.
"I am not saying that it is right, but I think that different people will see it in a different light.
"What will be interesting is if people like Anita Roddick make people look at the culture in a different light and that makes the advertisers change tack."
Six women give their views:

Alexia Loundras, music journalist and Mercury Prize judge
"There's no doubt that several successful male pop artists offer a less than enlightened portrayal of women in their music, but it's wrong to suggest that it is the whole picture. In the past few years there have been plenty of strong female voices offering young women far more positive pop role models - artists such as Ms Dynamite, Pink and Beyoncé's old group, Destiny's Child (they of the hit single 'Independent Women').
"Ms Roddick is right to draw attention to the fact that 'pimp' is inching towards becoming an accepted term for 'cool' (and it would've been nice if Madonna had considered that). But young people today are not stupid - there is simply no way that my 14-year-old sister would dream of thinking it was fashionable to describe themselves as 'whores'."

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, writer and broadcaster
"Anita Roddick is absolutely right to slam the pimp and whore culture, promoted by big business and detestable icons - licentious pop stars, so called rebels, black "pride" mercenaries and designer mobsters. They do it for money and status, they slash and burn moral boundaries, distort and coarsen society. Among black Britons it is destroying the parts racism couldn't reach or break. Boys and men, some more susceptible because they are under-educated, are drawn to mean, "cool" rap-star lifestyles - violent misanthropy, bling, drugs and half-naked girls. Black-on-black violence is spreading, disrespect for females endemic. Decent black men and women (those lucky and strong enough to retain a sense of themselves) can only watch and weep as the future dissolves into chaos."

Dawn Porter, author of Diaries of an Internet Lover (published by Virgin)
"I think the whole pimp culture thing has been taken out of context. Women like Beyoncé look fabulous. They may be bumping and grinding on their videos but hundreds of thousands of young girls admire them, not because they want to be prostitutes with a pimp, but because they are expressing themselves in the way that they want.
"I think the critics are blowing it out of proportion. I don't like seeing small girls walking down the street with tight tops and midriffs showing, but that is nothing new - I did it when I was younger. It's about dressing up for young girls, while for women it should be about having the freedom to dress how we want.
"As far as I am concerned, until we have exposed genitalia on a music video, there isn't a problem."

Max Akhtar, MTV presenter
"Beyoncé has talent. It is easy to pick on people who are successful, but she is young, a single woman and a multimillionaire - and that is inspirational. I see people like Mary J Blige and Beyoncé as role models.
"Rap music is still led by men. There's one Missy Elliot to every five Kanye Wests. Alicia Keys went from being a tomboy to wearing a negligee. When I asked her about the change in image, she said she felt she had reached the point in her career when no one could accuse her of being sexy to sell records.
"If I'm interviewing someone and choose to wear a skirt and heels, or jeans and a hoodie, I still know my stuff. Women already have to work harder to prove that it is not their face or their image that lets them be successful."

Caroline Coon, artist and founder of Cunst Art: Feminist Performance Art
"There is an issue about 'whore culture' but the way women have to confront it is by firstly acknowledging it is already illegal to buy sex from anybody under 18. People over the age of 18 should have the choice to do what they like with their bodies, and be as sexually explicit as they like - even for money. What culture has to do is overtly celebrate women who are sexual. The real problem is what male culture gives itself permission to do. How despicable of men to think that if a woman is sexual, she can be labelled a whore, men can do whatever they want with her, denigrate her, rape her, even murder her, and then excuse themselves.
"I valourise women who are overtly sexual and want to question women and men who are critical of women's sexual behaviour."

Joan Smith, columnist
"I do think Anita Roddick is right to raise this issue. Something which started in the 1970s as part of the sexual liberation of women has been hijacked and turned into something which is now simply part of the sex industry. I am shocked at how prevalent this culture is - from MTV to magazines like Nuts and Loaded, which convey something that is not nudity, but a particular version of male fantasies. Sex has been industrialised, through people-trafficking and prostitution. Young women are treated as commodities. And it is not acceptable to put some kind of jokey spin on this. Gangsta rap music comes from people who live in a violent society and in response adopt a macho identity. But it is wrong that something that comes out of a ghetto culture is celebrated without any understanding of its origins."

Well, what do you think? I know how it is affecting kids by the girls that came to Louis's party in the Summer - they all went into Fleur's bedroom asked me if they could dress up. I thought they would all come out looking like Snow white or the latest princess (how niave I was) and came out 30 minutes later draped in minute scarves just covering up what needed to be covered up with make-up etc., and they then started writhing to the music we had on downstairs. They are 7 years old....over to you! Swanx

knowing nantes - I need your help!

You may recall that Gypsy (on the Dao blog) has developed a web site for her local area, and Bruv suggested that I could perhaps develop a network in Nantes. I thought this was a brilliant idea, and I have just developed the bones of a web-site.

The web site has many facets which I may or may not develop.
1. To give viewers information on Nantes, but not the same information you would find on the general tourist sites, something a little different.
2. To grow a network of members - for social activities, member activities, development of business ideas etc.
3. To focus on people living and working in Nantes and develop the personality of the place.
4. To develop my own skills of design and marketing as a new business venture.
5. To offer a base for those who wish to visit Nantes i.e. bed and breakfast.
6. To offer help to those who are looking for properties in the area.

This is a big remit I know, but really at this stage it is for market research - with you and others.
I would be really grateful if you could let me know what you think! If you have the time. Here is the link...I have to say that if any of you are interested in setting up your own web site I would highly recommend moonfruit.com - it has had many very good reviews in web publications and on-line reviews. It is so easy to do! So Bruv if you ever think of setting up a Dao website give it a try!

http://www.knowing-nantes.moonfruit.com/ (I can't do a proper link on my computer!)

Thanking you in advance and thanks for the inspiration Bruv!
Swanx

veggie recipes

I saw these on the Observer web site tonight Phil and thought of you, they are from Nigel Slater, which is where I found the tomato and goats cheese one from.

They sound delicious!

Roast parsnips with honey and thyme

It is strange, I agree, to add honey to what is already the sweetest of vegetables. All I can suggest is that you try it - you might be surprised at what a bit of 'bee's spit' does for these roots. The thyme is essential here, adding an important herbal note to the general sugar-fest. You need something savoury alongside, and nothing works quite so well here as roast beef. Sausages come a close second. Enough for 6 as a side dish.

6 large parsnips
a thick slice of butter
a little olive or beef dripping
8 sprigs of thyme
4 tsp of honey

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Peel the parsnips and remove the tops. Slice each in half unless they are truly enormous, then quarters might be better. Put them into a roasting tin with a thick slice of butter and a spoonful of olive oil or beef dripping. Season with salt and black pepper then roast for 35-40 minutes until the parsnips are soft and golden. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs and add them to the vegetables with the honey, turning the parsnips over as you go. Continue to roast for 20 minutes or so, till the surface of the vegetables is sticky and golden, the flesh should be soft and tender.



Baked beetroot with goat's cheese and caraway seeds

Winter salads seem to work best when they have a sweet earthiness to them. Beetroot provides the sweetness here, the goat's cheese introducing a certain piquancy - it's a refreshing marriage of flavours. Serves 4 as a light salad or as an accompaniment.

6 medium-sized raw red or golden beetroot
250g goat's cheese

for the dressing:
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
half a tsp of Dijon mustard
5 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of caraway seeds
slices of dark rye bread to serve

Put the oven on at 200C/gas mark 6. Cut the leaves and stalks from the beetroots then wrap each one loosely in foil or baking parchment. Roast the beetroot for about an hour till tender right through. The only way to test is with a skewer - it should slide through without much pressure. Remove and unwrap the vegetables, peeling off their skins as soon as they are just cool enough to handle.

While the beets are cooling, pour the white wine vinegar into a mixing bowl, add the Dijon mustard, a grinding of salt and black pepper, then beat in the olive oil. Toast the caraway seeds lightly in a dry, non-stick frying pan then add them to the dressing.

Cut each warm, peeled beetroot into thick slices or segments, dropping them into the dressing as you go. Slice the goat's cheese thickly and toss it gently with the beetroots and their dressing.

Serve with dark rye bread.

Veggie recipes please!

As I am resuming my veggie diet(including the underwater vegetables known as fish!) in my latest attempt to fulfil my new years revolutions, I would be grateful if anyone has some tasty veggie recipes they would like to share. Here is a dead easy one I picked up from the net (to the author much thanks):

Lentil Curry
Sauté a large chopped onion in a little vegetable oil until soft, stir in a tablespoon of medium curry powder, stir for a couple of minutes; add 1 cup washed red lentils, 400 gram tin of tomatoes, 2 cups of water, I vegetable stock cube, 1 teaspoon yeast extract (eg marmite), salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally; add a handful or two of oats or brown bread-crumbs or crumbled weetabix for the last couple of minutes.

Serve with a crispy toasted pitta bread and salad for a light lunch, or with rice and accompaniments for a hearty meal. For added luxury, top the curry with a small dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream.

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, St-Marc-Sur-Mere

We found St Marc sur Mere with our friends Louise and Baz this Summer. Its about 45 mins from where we live and has a beautiful white sandy beach, with a lovely cafe on the sand and if you ever come and visit us we'll take you there. Its also the place where the adventures of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday films were filmed and there is a statue of Monsieur Hulot overlooking 'le plage' in remembrance.

I am sure that you will have seen some of the movies, but if you haven't they are well worth watching - very funny.

French Film Club - Times Online
Jacques Tati’s film M Hulot’s Holiday is over fifty years old, but its setting is still intact. Sarah Turner pays homage with her bucket and spade

Traditionally, French films ignore the British (and we’re happy to do the same) but St-Marc-sur-Mer, at the point where Brittany meets the Loire, is the site of cinema’s greatest entente cordiale. In 1952, the actor/writer/director Jacques Tati arrived at this seaside village, installing himself at the Hotel de la Plage.

The film he made there – Les Vacances de M Hulot, or, as English-speakers have come to know it, M Hulot’s Holiday, became an instant classic on both sides of the Channel. Often seen as a tribute to Charlie Chaplin, it has the greatest collection of sight gags ever caught on celluloid: a thousand small episodes, funny, poignant and gentle. Rowan Atkinson has described seeing it as "the defining moment of my life" (and went on to create Hulot-esque Mr Bean).

Tati used a mixture of actors, locals and holidaymakers in his film, rehearsing them for hours to get the look of a home movie. With no narrative and precious little dialogue, the story of a middle-aged man going on holiday (and wreaking havoc in the process) is an affectionate snapshot of two nations dipping their toes - metaphorically and literally - in the enticing waters of tourism.

Behind Hulot’s struggles with deckchairs (doomed) and games of tennis (disastrous), is a portrayal of the French middle class discovering the joys of the holiday for the first time, from sunbathing, group photographs and interacting with other guests to - above all - the joy of a day spent relaxing on a beach.

Among the guests with which Tati peoples his hotel is a group of doughty British holiday makers, wanting to assimilate, yet unmistakably un-French; pioneering post-war travellers to a land of baguettes, bidets and bolsters. In 1952, rationing was still in force in Britain and Elizabeth David was unknown to all but an elite.

St-Marc-sur-Mer, however, has never been elite: it has none of the aspirational gleam of the Cote d'Azur and is a bracing sort of place with pine forests, solid Edwardian houses, municipal floral displays, windswept beaches with rock pools and coast walks - Cornwall-sur-mer, if you like; unpretentious and family-friendly.

Today, at the Hotel de la Plage, you will look in vain for the dining room’s squeaking door (the interiors were all created on a set) and a poster and a few film stills are all that signify its place in cinematic history.

It prefers to get on with the business of being a three-star French hotel, which means idiosyncratic furnishings (ceramic lions in the reception) and the quintessentially French habit of serving great food in a restaurant utterly lacking in atmosphere.

The inner truth of Tati’s vision holds strong, though. A British family hesitantly orders in French, plumping for canard and fruits de mer before – in a scene straight from the film – settling down to a game of cards.

Carl and Trish from Birmingham are drinking rosé in the bar. Before they found St-Marc-sur-Mer on an excursion from St-Lazare last year, they didn’t really know about Tati, but recognise a stellar French seaside village when they see one.

In the intervening 50 years, St-Marc-sur-Mer has changed surprisingly little. The beach huts may have gone and these days there's a statue of Tati as M Hulot - in all his gangly glory - overlooking the beach (which is named Plage du M Hulot in his honour) and the bakery sells the M Hulot baguette.

But - by and large – people come here to have a holiday, unconsciously acting out the background to the film. They arrive by car, eat in the restaurants, chat to their fellow guests and experience a gentler, sepia-tinted way of life.

During the day, they head for the beach, buckets and spades in hand. Children clamber on the rocks, the shops still sell shrimping nets, there are no nightclubs, just a few bars selling pastis. Middle-aged men still sit in deckchairs wearing Hulot-style hats, oblivious to everyone else. Quite a few of them are carrying Waitrose shopping bags and are unmistakably British.

The entente cordiale has paid dividends. We've helped do away with bolsters - pillows are now standard in French hotels. In return, we've made great strides in understanding the thinking behind bidets. But there are still enough contrasts to make you feel you can reach out and touch Tati’s France in St-Marc-sur-Mer.

 

Freedom to blog - what do you think?

Another article I thought might be interesting to comment on.
Just as an aside, France, has the highest number of blogs in the world...what does this say about the French?

Anyhow, I would not have thought that blogging would be the most popular way of expressing one's thoughts in a country like Iran - but what do you think about this. As well as commenting on this blog, you can also send your opinion to the Times where they are running a debate focusing on these questions:

Do you read blogs? How important are they in keeping free speech alive - and can they change the world? the link is http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-1958041,00.html (can't insert it above). Thereare also some interesting comments already posted on the subject if you are interested.

Opinion - Ben Macintyre
The Times December 23, 2005
Mullahs versus the bloggers
Ben Macintyre
The explosive growth of youthful, irreverent online diaries has alarmed Iran's hardline Government

THE MUSIC OF Eric Clapton was banned in Iran this week. Broadcasters were ordered to cease playing “decadent” western songs and stick to “fine Iranian music”. Not content with denying the Holocaust, Israel’s right to exist, and advertising hoardings featuring David Beckham, Iran’s hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has now denied his people the chance to listen to Layla — cruel and unusual punishment indeed.

But if Iran, under the repressive rule of the ultraconservatives, is silencing the sound of Western pop, in another area of its culture, a wild cacophony of voices has erupted. The blogosphere is exploding. In Iran there are now more than 100,000 active blogs or weblogs, individual online diaries covering every conceivable subject, from pets to politics. Farsi is the 28th most spoken language in the world, but it now ties with French as the second most used language in the blogosphere. This is the place Iranians call “Weblogistan”: a land of noisy and irreverent free speech.

The collision between these two sides of Iran — hardline versus online — represents the latest, and most important, battle over freedom of speech. The outcome will dictate not only the shape of Iran, but also the future of the internet as a political tool, heralding a new species of protest that is entirely irrepressible.

The growth in Iranian blogging is part of a worldwide surge. In 1999, there were some 50 bloggers on the web; in January there were about 5.4 million; today, according to the blog search engine Technorati, there are more than 23 million.

There are reasons why Iran should be especially fertile ground for blogging. More than 90 per cent of the country is literate, and 70 per cent of the country’s citizens are under 30. Computer ownership is relatively high and internet cafés abound. The first Iranian blog was born in November 2001, when Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian journalist, posted instructions on how to build a simple weblog in under ten minutes. As Nasrin Alavi (a pseudonym) demonstrates in her new book, We Are Iran: the Persian Blogs, these diary sites cover the gamut: angry, sad, humorous and brave. Like all blogs they can also be self-indulgent, inaccurate, inarticulate and boring. Internet usage is growing faster in Iran than anywhere in the Muslim Middle East, and there are now more blogs in Farsi than in German, Italian, Spanish, Russian or Chinese. Apparently, since the rise of the blogs, graffiti have almost entirely vanished from the walls of Tehran’s public toilets.

With almost all Iran’s reformist newspapers closed down and many editors imprisoned, blogs offer an opportunity for dissent, discussion and dissemination of ideas that is not available in any other forum. There is wistful yearning in many Iranian blogs, and a persistent vein of anger: “I keep a weblog so that I can breath in this suffocating air,” writes one blogger. “I write so as not be lost in despair.” Blogs by Muslim women are particularly moving in their bitter portrayal of life behind the veil.

The Iranian State has done its utmost to smother the nascent Iranian blogosphere. In 2003 the Government began to take direct action against bloggers — more than 20 have been arrested, on charges ranging from “morality violations” to insulting leaders of the Islamic Republic. One blogger was sentenced to 14 years in prison for “spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries”; in October, Omid Sheikhan was sentenced to a year’s jail and 124 lashes for a weblog featuring satirical political cartoons.

The regime has also reportedly brought in powerful software programs to filter the net and block access to provocative blogs. But the Government remains profoundly alarmed by a tool it cannot control. Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the Iranian judiciary, recently described the internet as a “Trojan Horse carrying enemy soldiers in its belly”. Many of Iran’s religious leaders recall how an earlier revolution was fuelled by new technology, when cassette tapes and videotapes of sermons by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were smuggled into the country, undermining the Shah and hastening his downfall.

Decentralised, informal and versatile, blogs offer a potential for secrecy, anonymity and evasion unthinkable in a hierarchical, paper-based information system. A blogger may be arrested, but once his words are out there and replicable, they are effectively immortal and invulnerable. The bloggers have proved so wily and hard to censor that the Government has even considered removing Iran from the internet entirely, by creating a national intranet that would seal off Iranians from the contaminating freedom of the world wide web.

If the Iranian Government succeeds in crushing the blogs, other intolerant regimes will take heart; but if the Iranian blogosphere continues to expand, nascent networks of free thought will follow elsewhere. Already US policymakers are exploring ways of nurturing home-grown Arabic language blogs in the Middle East to spread democratic ideals and increase pressure for change.

It is less the political content of the blogs that terrifies Iran’s Government than the mere existence of this space outside its control, where Iranians are free to say whatever they wish to one another. Here in Weblogistan they can tell jokes, flirt, mock their leaders and share music files, unencumbered by mullahs’ fiats or state decrees.

For a reader from the West, the blogs offer a vision of Iran, far from the chanting crowds, hidden women and ranting mullahs of popular imagery. As much as President Ahmadinejad may seek to turn back the clock and battle “Westoxification”, at the blog level this is a modern country. “My blog is a blank page,” writes one young Iranian blogger. “Sometimes I stretch out on this page in the nude . . . now and again I hide behind it. Occasionally I dance on it.” That may not sound like a call to arms, but in a country where the music is dying it may be the harbinger of revolution.

Appetite For Change

I have been reading up on healthy eating tonight on the web, as I am not toally confused as to what I should eat to 1. become healthier and 2. lose weight - as losing weight was on one or two of our Resolution lists, I thought you might like to have a read. I think it makes total sense and is easy to digest - pardon the pun!

In four years of fatty fads and scare stories, Dr John Briffa has taken every opportunity to take a bite out of dietary orthodoxy. But here, in his final column, he reveals the one basic rule of healthy eating.

When I began writing for The Observer four years ago, I was of the opinion that a fair amount of dietary dogma was lacking in substance. More than that, my belief was that by eating what is traditionally billed as a 'healthy' diet we could well be digging a hole for ourselves with our knives, forks and spoons. Over the years, one of my aims has been to expose sometimes deep-set concepts that, by my reckoning, have been fuelled less by concern for public health and more by the food industry's desire for profit. My final column here seems like an appropriate opportunity to review whether, over the past years, we have shown any signs of an increased appetite for new nutritional thinking.

The party line on healthy eating has been a diet low in fat and rich in carbohydrate. In particular, we are encouraged to base our diet around 'complex carbohydrates' such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and breakfast cereals. These have are recommended on the basis of their largely fat-free nature, as well as their assumed ability to give a slow and sustained release of sugar.

However, many of the starchy staples we have been encouraged to have our fill of actually release their sugar quite rapidly into the bloodstream. It is known that these high-glycaemic index (GI) foods, will tend to stimulate the secretion of copious quantities of the sugarlowering hormone insulin. While insulin is essential to life, excesses of it are believed to promote an array of undesirable health issues including obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Not only do high-GI foods cause critical, health-eroding imbalances in the body's biochemistry, but they have also been found to have less appetite-sating effects compared to lower-GI fare. And that's not all: other than the carbohydrate they contain, many starchy foods, such as white rice, pasta and potato contain precious little else from a nutritional perspective. In the past four years I have personally been pleased to witness growing and lasting awareness that by swallowing conventional nutritional advice we run the risk of ending up overfed, but malnourished.

What I believe to be a mini-revolution in nutrition seems to have been sparked by the sudden explosion of interest in the Atkins diet. While this diet is too extreme and one-dimensional in its focus for my liking, it did at least serve to highlight the potential hazards associated with consuming a diet rich in certain carbs. I am delighted to see that more recently, the GI has been popularised through dietary regimes that are more balanced and wholesome in their approach.

Such diets have highlighted the fact that many foods, including fruits, non-starchy vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds have relatively low GIs, and at the same time offer considerable stashes of health-giving nutrients. Other foods that tend to stabilise blood sugar and insulin include intrinsically low-carb foods such as meat and eggs. However, the GI of a food is not the sole arbiter of whether a food is healthy or not, and animal foods such as these are generally viewed in a dim light on the basis of their high content of supposedly disease-making substances, such as saturated fat and cholesterol.

Yet studies have found that cutting back on fat is, for the most part, spectacularly unsuccessful in terms of bringing about weight loss or protecting us from conditions such as heart attack and stroke. The fact that reducing saturated fat and cholesterol intake seems to offer little in the way of health benefit strongly suggests that these dietary elements are not the spectres they are so often made out to be.

These and other factors can make it difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff when attempting to interpret the science accurately. For those seeking a simpler way to discern the facts about food, I suggest going back to basics. An abiding principle I would like to leave you with is that we can make quick and generally accurate decisions about the best kind of diet by contemplating what our ancient ancestors ate. It makes sense that the foods that have been in the human diet for the longest during our evolutionary process are the ones we are best adapted to genetically, physiologically and biochemically, and are therefore the ones most likely to maintain our health and well-being.

It is perhaps easy to visualise our hunter-gather relatives chowing down on fruit and veg and nuts and seeds, as well as occasional meat, fish and eggs. On the other hand, there's something not quite right about an image of early men and women sitting around camp fires tucking into plates of pasta, bowlfuls of processed breakfast cereals and stacks of bread.

In my very first offering for The Observer, I made the point that a healthy diet is one that is ostensibly made from unprocessed foods found naturally in nature. All the credible scientific research I have come across in the last four years has only served to make me even more confident of this basic notion. My belief is that while what it means to eat a truly healthy diet can be found by close scrutiny of the science, I also reckon this can be more simply discerned by using nothing more than common sense.

john.briffa@observer.co.uk
Dr John Biffa
The Observer 1 January 2006

Visions from my Travels

Well I've finally done it...here is the link to my painting blog spot ....... http://travelvisions.blogspot.com/

I've started with some images from Cuba, and will gradually add some more from my recent exhibition! so keep an eye on this blog!

thank you all for your encouragement and support.

what makes us happy

I have just watched a programme about making slough happy...a group of psychologists and therapists working togetherwith a group of vounteers from that famous town....., and of course the research tells them that it is a combination of things... some feel that money is what will do it for them,but money is only part of it. We know this, but why to we give it so much importnce in our lives?

A key to happiness is to do the things that bring you into a flow state...............cooking , telling stories, making love , painting, talking to a friend , a cuddle, fullfilling work, lending a hand to another........I wonder what would be our real flow state, and how can we do more of it!!!!!!!!!!!

Try this out - its delish!

I made this today, it was easy peasy and delicious....
Roast peppers with tomatoes and goat's cheese

The point here is the sweet juices that flood your plate from the baked tomatoes and peppers as they mix with the melting cheese. I tend to serve some rough hunks of bread with this to mop up the red-gold juices. Serves 4 as a light lunch or supper.

4 large ripe peppers
16 cherry tomatoes
olive oil
a small bunch of basil
4 small goat's cheeses

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.Wipe the peppers, slice each in half lengthways, remove the seeds and core. Put the peppers skin-side down in a baking dish or roasting tin. Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, generously, then season with salt and black pepper. Tear the basil leaves, approximately six per pepper, into wide shreds and toss them with the tomatoes. Fill each pepper with some of the seasoned tomatoes, then bake for 40 minutes or so, until the tomatoes have softened and filled the peppers with juice, the fruits themselves becoming toasted around the edges. To be good, they should be thoroughly soft and tender.

Cut the cheeses in half around the middle, unless they are particularly shallow, in which case leave them as they are. Remove the peppers from the oven, tuck the cheeses carefully into each pepper and return them to the oven for five to 10 minutes until the cheese has started to melt.

Eat the peppers hot, while the cheese is still molten, its creamy centre mingling with the juices of the tomatoes. Spoon any juices from the dish over each pepper.

FOR JAMESEY WHO HAS JUST BECOME ANOTHER YEAR OLDER AND WISER...

Reach out and touch faith

Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who's there

Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer
Take second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith

Your own personal Jesus...

Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I'll make you a believer
I will deliver
You know I'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Reach out and touch faith

Happy Birthday with lots of love Swan xxx

spend , spend , spend

I saw this on another blog and thought it was great..........LOVE and TIME: those are the only two things in all the world that cannot be bought, but only spent. --Gary Jennings

my exhbition

I hang my exhibition tomorrow and boy do I feel nervous!!....but I feel I have to do it as part of my journey as an artist! Doing the work I do with creatives..helping them run their businesses is great, but I feel I need to connect to a deeper part of myself...the artist.

went on a great deam course last weekand laerned so much.... and want to run them too along side art groups . I used to teach art many years ago to those who really wanted to connect with themselves creativley, and it was fab......

loved the post from Kats on the Doa blog, ......may be doing much more painting is my sailing boat..but it takes courage to hop on board, what stops me, I know it is all about fear....and that's not good, so with the help of my fellow bloggers I must launch the boat...

Happy sailing one and all.

For a dear friend departed

I wrote this piece the night after my dear friend died almost 2 years ago. I has been meditating and it came to me as a celebration of her life. I read it at her funeral...I wonder what friends would write about us!!!...maybe we should ask them , so that we could learn about what we bring to the world and what my may need to change!

For Zoe

Zoe loved life and loved to celebrate it!
Zoe loved her friends and always wanted to bring people together
Zoe believed in women!….
and wanted to encourage them in their health and work/life balance

Zoe loved celebrations and was a fab organiser.
Zoe had an indominatable spirit
and was courageous in all that she faced and did
Zoe was passionate and wanted to make the world a better place.

Zoe loved Phoebe and wanted to spend as much time as possible enjoying her
Zoe encouraged people to be charitable, helpful and caring
Zoe loved living!

Zoe believed that good information could help people make better-informed decisions about their health
Zoe had vision
she wanted to create things of lasting value

Zoe loved her family and was always concerned for their well being
Zoe loved to laugh and encouraged others in their appreciation of life’s ironies
Zoë was a consummate professional – only the best would do!

Zoë had a big heart
and encouraged others to give of their time, effort and money to help others
Zoë loved being in business
And wanted to encourage women to work together using their creativity and unique gifts

Zoë wanted women to have a decent standard of living
But not at the expense of their health and family life
Zoë was a great listener and wanted to help others to get good advice

Zoë loved fun and wanted to enjoy the fruits of her hard work
Zoë was an ace net-worker
But never in a self seeking way

Zoë was open to the unexpected
And loved the co-incidences of life

Zoë was a great friend
And always made time for people
Zoë loved looking great
But not at the expense of her health
Zoë was compassionate and understood women’s sorrows

Zoë was warm and loving
and embraced people of every colour and creed Zoë wanted to make a difference!

Budding Poets

Just came across this very good web site for amateur (and professional) writers inviting people to write poetry on 4 themes -Autumn, Family Ties, One Wish and Remembrance Day - the top 100 will be published. Check it out - I quite fancy writing one.

Bathtime with Babette

I have written this children's story for Louis and Fleur who both like it and ask me now to read it each night, but I would really appreciate any comments and constructive criticism as I wish to send it to a few childrens publishers for them to read. This is the first time I have written anything but have always wanted to. Bruv and Fuchsy I also need an illustrator for each page, if either of you are interested. Its not vital but I have been told that it can obviously add dimension to a story if it is illustrated.

BATH TIME WITH BABETTE
Going to Mer-school.

WRITTEN BY SWAN KARASS
This book is dedicated to my two lovely children, Louis and Fleur
Copyright 2005

PAGE 1.

‘It’s bath time’ SAID MUM

“Yippee” said Fleur “I can go swimming with Babette,”

“OK Clothes off, in you get. You can play, but no splashing tonight please. I’ll be next door hanging up your school uniform.” SAID FLEUR’S MUM, AND SHE LEFT FLEUR TO PLAY WITH HER BATH TOYS.

PAGE 2.

“Fleur, ooohhh it’s lovely to see you.” SAID BABETTE,
BABETTE WAS FLEUR’S WHIZZY TOOTHBRUSH. MUM HAD BROUGHT IT IN THE CHEMIST NEXT TO THE DOCTORS WHEN THEY WERE WAITING FOR A PRESCRIPTION FOR FLEUR, WHO AT THAT TIME HAD A VERY SORE THROAT.

BABETTE WAS BEAUTIFUL - SHE HAD LONG, GOLDEN HAIR AND SHE WORE BLUE SEASHELL EARRINGS AND A BEAUTIFUL GREEN SHINY DRESS WITH A WHITE TUMMY BUTTON. THIS BUTTON MADE THE TOOTHBRUSH WHIZZ IN FLEUR’S MOUTH. AND TICKLE HER GUMS AND TEETH.

LOUIS, FLEUR’S BROTHER HAD A WHIZZY FOOTBALL TOOTHBRUSH CALLED HENRI WHICH ALWAYS TRIED TO KICK BABETTE. SO FLEUR CAREFULLY PICKED UP BABETTE FROM THE BACK OF THE SINK WITHOUT DISTURBING HIM.

THEN FLEUR GOT DOWN HER HAIRBRUSH FROM THE SHELF ABOVE THE SINK AND BEGAN TO BRUSH BABETTE’S LONG GOLDEN HAIR - BABETTE LOVED THIS AND BEGAN TO SING HER FAVOURITE SONG
Under the sea...that’s where we’ll be...just Fleur and me...under the sea...

PAGE 3.

“Babette can we go swimming?” WHISPERED FLEUR

FLEUR LAY DOWN, WITH HER TUMMY ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BATH AND MADE SWIMMING ACTIONS WITH HER ARMS. BEFORE SHE KNEW IT, SHE WAS SWIMMING NEXT TO BABETTE IN THE DEEP BLUE OCEAN. FLEUR PRESSED BABETTE’S TUMMY BUTTON AND BABETTE WHIZZED OFF LIKE A SPEEDBOAT WITH FLEUR HOLDING ONTO HER LONG LOVELY TAIL. THIS WAS THE PART FLEUR LIKED THE MOST.

FLEUR HAD BROUGHT HER PLASTIC TEACUP THAT SHE PLAYED WITH IN THE BATH, SO THEY STOPPED AND HAD SOME ALGAE TEA AT THE OLD TURTLE CAFE – WELL, THOUGHT FLEUR, THAT’S WHAT MUM WOULD DO!
PAGE 4

BABETTE AND FLEUR THEN JUMPED ON THE BACK OF ONE OF THE TURTLE TAXIS WAITING OUTSIDE THE CAFE WHICH TOOK THEM TO CONCH CAVE - WHERE ALL OF BABETTE’S FRIENDS LIVED. FLEUR MET ALEXIA, JULIETTE, CHLOE AND SAFIYA. THEY WERE ALL EATING MER-MUFFINS. THESE WERE REALLY HEALTHY MUFFINS MADE OF SEAWEED AND SAND - MUM WOULD BE HAPPY, FLEUR THOUGHT - SHE IS ALWAYS TRYING TO GET ME TO EAT GREEN-STUFF!

PAGE 5

“Fleur, today I am going to take you to my school - you will be the star attraction because you have 2 feet”, said Babette excitedly.

BABETTE’S SCHOOL WAS IN A GIANT, WHITE CLAMSHELL. THE EDGE OF THE SHELL WENT UP AND DOWN, UP AND DOWN. THE LARGE SHELL OPENED UP WHEN YOU PRESSED THE ROUND PEARL BUTTON ON THE FRONT.

ONCE INSIDE, THE SHELL GLISTENED AND SHIMMERED LIKE A THOUSAND DIAMONDS - IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING FLEUR HAD EVER SEEN.


PAGE 6

MER-CHILDREN SWAM AROUND THE SHELL THEY ALL SAID HELLO TO FLEUR AND HUGGED HER, FLEUR SUDDENLY DIDN’T WANT TWO FEET SHE WANTED 1 LONG BEAUTIFUL TAIL SO THAT SHE COULD SWIM AROUND TOO!

“Aahh you must be Fleur, I am Madame Océan, Babette’s teacher. Today I must teach you how to swim but, mmm, you have 2 feet. You’ll have to use a mertail”

Page 7.

“Madame Océan gave Fleur what looked like a mermaid’s tail crossed with a surfboard and helped her to push her 2 feet into it, in an instant she was whizzing around the large clam shell with all of the other mermaids.”wheeeeee!”

WHILST SWIMMING AROUND, FLEUR WAS THINKING THAT LOUIS, HER BROTHER, WOULD BE SO JEALOUS IF HE HAD SEEN HER MERTAIL BUT SHE DIDN’T CARE, SHE WAS OFF AGAIN WITH BABETTE, SKIMMING AROUND THE EDGE OF THE LARGE GLISTENING CLAM SHELL GOING UP AND DOWN, FASTER AND FASTER, UNTIL SHE WAS FEELING QUITE DIZZY....


PAGE 8

Fleur’s Mum had come back into the bathroom, “Fleur, its time to wash your hair, can you stop splashing around in the bath - oh look at all the water on the floor again!” Said Fleur's Mum looking annoyed.

“Ooohh, why do you always spoil my fun Mum, I was swimming round and round a beautiful, large, sparkling clam shell on my mertail...I went to Babette’s school tonight and I met her teacher, Madame Océan”

“Yes fleur, come on Babette back on the sink.”

MUM PUT BABETTE BACK NEXT TO HENRI AND ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKED HIM OVER. HENRI STARTED KICKING HIS LEGS AND BABETTE ROLLED OVER TO GET OUT OF HIS WAY.

“If you don’t believe me Mum, then what’s this?”

PAGE 9

FLEUR OPENED HER HAND, AND THERE WAS A LARGE GLISTENING PEARL WITH A LITTLE SEAWEED WRAPPED AROUND IT.

“Mum, Babette says that this is very precious.”
“It is precious...” said fleur's Mum with a look of amazement.
FLEUR’S MUM LOOKED AT THE LARGE PEARL SITTING IN FLEUR’S HAND.

“Mum, today Madame Océan taught us about Queen Aphrodite, the Queen who was born in the Sea, she used to calm the stormy seas and she sailed in a large black shiny mussel shell.

Mum, Madame Océan had an amazing picture book, when she opened the book all the pictures came to life, you could even hear the sound of the waves and the sea.

When we got to the chapter about Queen Aphrodite it said that she shook pearls from her hair when she dried it – and this pearl fell out of the picture book into my lap.
Mum, why don’t I have pearls in my hair? Said Fleur longingly.

MUM WAS LOOKING WORRIED NOW IN CASE FLEUR HAD TAKEN THIS FROM SOMEONE AT SCHOOL OR FROM A SHOP ON THE WAY HOME FROM SCHOOL.

“Mum, tomorrow Babette is taking me to…”

P.10

“Tomorrow, you are going to real school Fleur, so let’s get you out of the bath and get you ready for bed. I’ll look after this pearl and I’ll show it to daddy when he gets home from work, then we'll decide what to do with it.

"But Mum its my pearl, Queen Aphrodite wanted me to have it." said fleur, about to cry.

“Have you brushed your teeth?

FLEUR LOOKED AT BABETTE, AND BABETTE WINKED BACK. FLEUR PUT SOME MINT TOOTHPASTE ONTO BABETTE'S BRISTLES AND THEN PRESSED BABETTE’S TUMMY BUTTON TO MAKE HER BRUSH WHIZZED AROUND.
“Ooohhh it really tickles Mum, hee hee hee, stop it Babette.”
BABETTE WAS SWITCHED OFF AND AS SHE SLOWED DOWN SHE WHISPERED “Sweet dreams Fleur, and don't worry about the pearl”

FLEUR PUT HER TO SLEEP FOR THE NIGHT ON HER LOVELY SOFT PINK FLANNEL ON THE EDGE OF THE BATH, THEN MUM TUCKED HER UP IN BED. FLEUR WAS STILL WORRIED ABOUT THE PEARL, THEN SHE REMEMBERED WHAT BABETTE HAD SAID. SHE COULD HEAR BABETTE SINGING SOFTLY IN THE BATHROOM, AS SHE DRIFTED OFF TO SLEEP.

Under the sea...that’s where we’ll be...just Fleur and me...tomorrow you’ll see!

THE END

My Bruv - he's 53

And here's what he means to me
Its his birthday on the 30th - the day before Hallow's Eve
That makes him a Scorpio - Oooohh he's deep!
That makes him a Scorpio - with a sting in his tail!
That makes him a Scorpio - with lots of sensitivity
He is a man who knows about women - he understands them well
He is a man who is a buddhist - he knows himself the most
He meditates, he contemplates, he understands so well
What life is all about, or if it really exists at all
He's a child of the 50's - you can read about his 60's
But what about the 70's, the 80's, 90's, 00's?
We need to know more about this mysterious man...
He loves to read, he loves to listen, he loves to talk about others
But when it comes to himself - he would prefer not to offer
too much, although there is much to tell
My bruv is not very well, but he really copes so well
He is not the sort of person who about these things, likes to dwell
He loves playing soldiers, and reads about the wars
He reads deeply into history, religion and the arts
He loves reading anything - in the toilet it normally starts
He is a formidable cook for a man it has to be said
And is rather smitten on Greece - perhaps he lived there once
He is not so keen on travelling - would rather stay at home
He lives in Watchet, Somerset, overlooking the sea
And loves to go for cups of tea (and bleeding great cream cakes!)
He has a son called Jamesey, who lives with Phil upstairs
In fact he never comes out of his room, only to have some nosh
Phil is heavily into music, see his profile for his faves
He loves to buy antiques, works of art and bric a brac
You can always find him at an auction house, a gallery or car boot
He's a man of many interests - you can learn a lot from him
He's had hundreds of hobbies, and is always keen to learn
But what I have learnt the most from him is to take each day as it comes
Don't think about the past and don't worry about the future
Phil is my big bruv, he's always an inspiration
He thinks totally differently to anyone else I know
That's what makes him special and interesting to know
Well my Bruv is now 53 and I wish him a very Happy Birthday
Lots of love Big Bruv from your Sis, Swanx